ZONING DOCUMENTS AUTOMATICALLY

When scanning or opening documents, Readiris will automatically apply Page Analysis to split up the documents in different zones.

The Page Analysis option is selected by default. Click the Options button and disable Page Analysis should you want to avoid automatic page analysis.

The page analysis results can be modified manually after automatic page analysis. For more information, see the section Zoning documents manually. 

The page analysis results can also be saved in a layout file, which you can use afterwards as a zoning template every time you are scanning documents with a similar layout. See the section Using zoning templates for more information.

Zone types

Readiris uses five zone types: text, graphic, table, barcode zones and handprinted zones.

Page analysis detects text, graphic, table and barcode zones automatically. Handprinting zones need to be drawn manually.

For more information, see the section Zoning documents manually.

Each zone type has its own iconThe zones are sorted top-down, left to right. Numbers indicate the sort order of the zones. The sort order and zone types can be changed, however. For more information, see the section Zoning documents manually.

Do not Detect Zones on Borders

When your scanner generates black borders around the actual image, page analysis tends to find zones where there’s only noise.

To avoid this, click Do Not Detect Zones on Borders on the Layout menu and scan the document again.

Frame the Area to Analyze

As an alternative to zoning docum ents automatically, the function Frame the Area to Analyze can be used. This function is useful when only one particular area on the document pages needs to be OCRed.

Select Frame the Area to Analyze by clicking the corresponding button on the image toolbar.

Draw a frame around the part of the page you want Readiris to recognize. Then click Recognize + Save.

ZONING DOCUMENTS MANUALLY

Besides zoning documents automatically by means of Page Analysis, Readiris allows you to zone documents manually.

Manual zoning comes in handy when having to modify the automatic page analysis results. It also allows you to create zoning templates.

For more information on zoning templates, see the section Using zoning templates.

Note that handprinting zones always need to be zoned manually.

Operation

•  In order to zone a document manually, first click the Options button and deselect Page Analysis.

•  Open or scan the document by clicking the Scan or Open button.

•  Select the zone type of the zones you want to draw: click the pointer button on the right toolbar and select the required zone type.

Readiris uses five zone types: text, graphic, table, barcode and handprinting zones.

•  Draw a frame around the zones you want to analyze.

For information about recognizing barcodes and handprinting, see the sections Recognizing barcodes and Recognizing handprinted text, respectively.

•  To select other zone types, click the zone type icon that is currently selected, and choose another zone type.

•  Or click the Layout menu, point to Layout Mode and select the zone you want to draw.

•  When you are done splitting up the document in recognition zones, click the Recognize + Save button to execute the OCR.

Sorting zones

•  To change the sort order of zones, click the Sort button on the image toolbar and click the zones one by one in the required order.

•  Or click the Layout menu and then click Sort Zones.

•  To end the sorting, click outside a zone.

•  When you are done, click the Recognize + Save button to execute the OCR.

Zones you do not click, will be excluded from recognition.

Drawing polygons

Zoning documents manually is not limited to rectangular shapes. You can create polygonal zones by merging rectangular ones. Whenever two zones of the same type intersect, they become a polygon automatically.

Automatic page analysis

Should the current page be too complex to zone manually, click the Analyze page button on the image toolbar to zone the page automatically.

Note that barcode zones and handprinting zones always need to be drawn manually.

Changing the zone type

To change the zone type of a zone, Ctrl-click the zone and select the required zone type.

You can also change the zone type of several zones simultaneously:

•  Click the pointer button on the image toolbar, then click Select Zones

Tip: when the pointer is not visible on the image toolbar this means one of the 5 zone types is currently selected. Click the corresponding icons on the image toolbar, then click Select Zones.

•  Hold down the Shift key while selecting multiple zones.

•  On the Layout menu point to Zone Type and click the required zone type.

Modifying the zone size

•  Click inside the zone you want to modify.

•  Place the mouse pointer over a marker (on the sides and in the corners of the zone).

•  Click the marker and drag the mouse to modify the zone size.

Moving zones

•  Select the zone you want to move.

•  Click inside the zone and drag the mouse to modify the position of the zone.

Recognizing a particular zone

•  Ctrl-click the zone you want to recognize and select Copy as Text.

The results are sent to the pasteboard as body text. This also works for handprinted text.

Graphic zones and barcode zones can also be copied to the pasteboard.

Recognizing all text zones

To recognize all text zones on a page, click the command Copy Text Zones on the Layout menu. They will be copied to the pasteboard.

Recognizing all graphic zones

To recognize all graphic zones on a page, click the command Copy Graphic zones on the Layout menu. They will be copied to the pasteboard.

Deleting zones

•  Select the zone(s) you want to delete or click the command

Delete All Zones on the Layout menu.

•  Select the commands Cut or Clear on the Edit menu to cut or delete the zones.

Deleting small zones

Some documents, faxes for instance, often have "stray" dots on pages, causing Readiris to create superfluous zones that do not contain text.

To erase all small zones, click Delete Small Zones on the Layout menu.

This option erases all zones smaller than 0.5" and re-sorts the remaining zones.

USING ZONING TEMPLATES

When OCRing many documents with a similar page layout, it may be useful to use zoning templates instead of automatic page analysis. That way, the same zoning structure is applied to all scanned or opened documents, which speeds up the process.

Operation

•  Click Options on the main toolbar and deactivate Page

Analysis.

•  Open your document and zone the first page of the document manually by using the image toolbar buttons.

For more information, see the section Zoning documents manually.

•  On the Layout menu, click the command Save.

•  Open or scan the other pages of the document by clicking the

Open or Scan button on the main toolbar.

The layout will be applied to the scanned or opened documents.

The layout will be applied to the scanned or opened documents.

When you want to use the same zoning template next time you use Readiris, click the command Open in the Layout menu.

Frame the Area to Analyze

As an alternative to zoning templates, you can use the option Frame the Area to Analyze. That way, you can define one particular area on the page that needs to be OCRed. Any data outside the OCR area will be excluded from recognition.

Operation

•  Select Frame the Area to Analyze by clicking the corresponding button on the image toolbar.

•  Draw a frame around the area you want Readiris to recognize.

You will be prompted whether you want to apply the same recognition area to all pages of the current document.

To cancel this function, re-execute Page Analysis by clicking the Analyze page button on the image toolbar.

•  Click Recognize + Save to execute the OCR.

Or use the command Save document on the File menu.

You can also save a selection of pages by clicking Save Selected Pages on the File menu.